Ahh, Autumn! What a beautiful season!
All trees’ leaves turn into beautiful red, yellow and orange colours, recovering grounds and rivers of a magnificent flamboyant carpet… Not only am I proud to have come to life at this season, but I also love all fruits, vegetables and mushrooms available at this time of the year. As the weather is getting cooler, I thought of doing a hot chocolate made of homemade hazelnut milk (delicious) and eat my favourite seasonal fruit: Persimmon!
Hazelnut milk directions
1) Soak 2 cups of hazelnuts in water overnight (or at least 2 hours).
2) Pass hazelnuts through a sieve the next day and put them into your blender (I use a Vitamix) adding a good quality water until it reaches 6 cups with the hazelnuts inside. So it’s about 4 cups of water (water should always equal the double quantity of hazelnuts).
3) Mix well with the blender and then pour into a large bowl but passing through a nut milk bag (I bought mine on rawsomecreative.com) to obtain a perfectly liquid milk. Then press the nut milk bag with your hands (just like a cow, haha!) until no more milk comes out.
4) If you have vanilla beans on hands you can pour the milk back in your blender, add them, mix quickly. See the approximate amount of vanilla in the picture.
Your hazelnut milk is done, now you just have to take the quantity you need for doing the hot chocolate and leave the rest in the fridge in a glass bottle.
5) Either mix milk and raw cacao powder in a pan, or add the cacao directly in your cup(s) with a teaspoon of coconut nectar to sweeten. Warm up the milk on low heat. (P.S.: I also added half a teaspoon of maca powder).
6) Tada… your hot cacao is ready, you can put a small amount of cinnamon and coconut flower sugar on top to taste and look better!!!
I had a cup of this hot cacao for breakfast with one ripe persimmon and half of a banana as you can see in the picture…
Besides having a wonderful natural vanilla flavor, Persimmons are rich in antioxidants, vitamins A, B and C, contain a lot of beta-carotene beautifying one’s skin, especially complexion. This fruit is astringent, it is good against anemia, tiredness, diarrhea, vitamins deficiency. It is excellent for both digestive and cardiovascular systems, lowers cholesterol and blood pressure and protects stomach and intestines. It is also said that it opens the appetite, but oddly it does the opposite for me…lol!
Raw coconut nectar has a low glycemic index and is very nutritious compared to regular sugar which isn’t. Plus, the palm trees are not harmed during the nectar tapping process!
Maca Powder is rich in vitamins B, C, E and minerals. It balances your mood: helps against stress, depression, anxiety. It promotes sexual function, gives energy, is good for bones, teeth, blood, cardio-vascular system, clears acne and blemishes on your skin. Pretty much uh?!!
Raw Cacao has numerous benefits, I couldn’t write them all but the main one are that it is very rich in antioxidants, magnesium and other minerals (most people have a magnesium deficiency and magnesium is so important for your nervous system and really fights against inflammation and therefore pains, e.g., menstrual pain!). It improves digestion, lowers blood pressure and improves circulation, it can neutralize free radicals, keeps you looking young, and as you probably know it enhances both mental and physical well-being (and not for girls only!^^) … WOW!
Here you go! ♡ – and have a happy Halloween! 😮
